The opening of the ‘Law No. 4688 and Collective Bargaining Congress in its 10th Anniversary’, which was organized due to the 10th anniversary of the acquisition of the Collective Bargaining right covering public employees, started yesterday at Memur-Sen Confederation of Public Servants Trade Unions Headquarters.
Ali Yalçın, Chairman of the ‘Memur-Sen’, who made the opening speech of the program, underlined that the law numbered 4688 was insufficient and underlined the need for regulations, “The problems that were not seen in a relative stability in the past are showing themselves very harshly today. We have expressed the deficiencies of Law No. 4688, which determines the framework of trade unionism for public servants, from the very first day. 4688 and the collective bargaining system are not capable of meeting the expectations of this huge mass, solving their problems and protecting their rights. 4688 must be completed, matured, developed. It is not possible to go any further with the current legislation,” he said.
“DESPITE THE PROBLEMS, WE TOOK IMPORTANT STEPS”
Speaking on the program, Labor and Social Security Minister Vedat Bilgin stated that he believes that such congresses will contribute and drew attention to the improving side of the trade union struggle and said, “First of all, we politicians, intellectuals, all segments of society, especially those who work on a salary, need the strengthening of the union life and the strengthening of the collective bargaining mechanism. It is our duty to protect workers against inflation. Important steps have been taken in this regard. One of them is the regulation of the minimum wage. Another important issue is that we were saying that the minimum wage should be excluded from the tax during this period, and this has happened.”
Emphasizing that the Collective Agreement mechanisms continue to work, Bilgin stated that they signed an important document in the 6th Term Collective Agreement period and that the workers were given the inflation difference, saying, “We did not only give the inflation difference at the beginning of January, but then we gave the social balance difference. We will also discuss the inflation gap in July. 3600 additional indicators are also in the final stage we came. It can come to the Parliament in May," he added.
“DIFFERENCES IN LEGAL REGULATIONS CAUSE DISCUSSION”
Speaking at the congress, Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University Rector Prof. Dr. İbrahim Aydınlı, on the other hand, pointed out that the differences in legal regulations cause many discussions and said, “According to the July 2021 statistics of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, which is the last official data, when the organization rate of workers and civil servants is compared, it seems that the organization rate of civil servants is quite high. We know that the legal regulations of union structures, such as their organization rates, are also different. For this reason, the fact that workers' and civil servants' unions are subject to different norms in terms of legal regulations brings along some discussions. This will be the basis of our discussions.”